Edward Hoyle McElrath

Edward “Ed or Eddie” Hoyle McElrath of Lance Road in Mills River, NC, passed away peacefully on Saturday evening December 23, 2017, at the Brookdale Senior Living Facility located in Asheville. He was 88 years old and lived a full life. Ed was born October 5, 1929, in Candler, NC. One of seven children, they grew up in the Beaverdam area of Candler. He was a member of the 1948 graduating class of Candler High School and shortly after served his country in the United States Navy for nearly four years. Most of his Navy time was spent at the naval base in Honolulu, HI. After the Navy, he attended Blanton’s Business College. Ed worked for several years for Associated Surveys in land and property valuation and served as the Property Tax Supervisor for Buncombe County for just less than 20 years. He finished his working days with Alliance Corporation in Fletcher, NC. Around 1990 he moved to the Mills River area. Ed loved the outdoors and grew up fly fishing and hunting. Around mid-life he became an avid golfer and loved to play. He was a skilled card player and enjoyed playing cards his entire life. He was honest, trustworthy, and dependable and was respected in both his business and his personal life. Ed was a devoted son, husband, father, grandfather and brother. He had a wonderful sense of humor, loved to make people laugh and was drawn to other humorous people. He enjoyed telling jokes and stories. Many of his stories were about his youth and included humorous family members and local characters. Other stories were about his travels through life and the unique characters he met along the way. Still others were about and his time in the Navy and Hawaii. He had a vivid long term memory to the very end. He will be missed! He leaves his son, Scott and wife Karen, grandson, Seth and wife Kaitlin, grandson, Sam and wife Merrick and great-granddaughter, Teagan; his son, Keith; his sisters, Edith Jefferies, Beryl Brown, Ovilla Carpenter, Luella Warner, and Patricia Barron; and his brother, Lester. Ed was preceded in death by his wife, Shirley, son, Greg, and parents, Frank and Illa McElrath. A visitation will be held at Groce Funeral Home, 1401 Patton Ave, Asheville, NC on Friday, December 29, 2017, at 2:00 p.m., followed by a service at 3:00 p.m. Interment with military honors will be at Pisgah View Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers please make any donations to Healing Waters Fly Fishing, healing those who serve. www.projecthealingwaters.org.